The New Outsider
by Crestfallen Ogress
Summary: Salem is captured and sacrificed to the Void before her tragedy can take place. Her captor visits her perhaps for the last time. Takes place post-Death of The Outsider and pre-RWBY.


\- With your predecessor deposed, a new Outsider must be crowned…

The bespectacled, bearded young man sat who once sat quietly amongst the unnaturally occuring broken world of the Void, spoke. He was well dressed enough to enter a high class ball or an aristocratic secret society, with circular glasses adorning the bridge of his nose and a greyish-black fedora marking his shadowy aspects. His voice echoes through the ever shifting reality of the lost world, bouncing back and forth its deformed buildings and crooked streets. His visage momentarily glitches and shifts unnaturally, a jarring, inhuman air seemed to emanate greatly from him. A non-existant wind bellows past his ears, an unwelcome gesture by the bygone realm. In front of the young man, a woman stood, perfectly preserved in the slab of rock she was partially buried in. Her arms lunge forward, as if to maul her adversary, while she retained a look of abject horror on her youthful features. Her tears, having long dried into stone, eternally marking her carbonite face with untold sorrow. One can notice a faint, but deep cut on her carotid artery. The man smiled.

\- And you, Salem? You were the perfect candidate.

Knowing he will never get an response, the man stopped, perhaps for a moment of feigned dramatic pause. A personal inside joke.

\- Yes. It is I, the only one who still remember your name as it was ripped from you. The only one who could enunciate your name without freeing you.

The man silently shuffled his hands in his pockets.

\- When I kidnapped you, performed the ritual and cut your throat with the Twin-bladed knife; with your ascension, the Void was spread here. But it was never far from Dunwall, Gristol or the Isles or its smelly vats of rotten whale fat. The Void is now, you see, both in what will be Remnant and the old world. It has expanded, grown in both influence and power. At least the childish Brothers couldn't be bothered to destroy this place anymore, now that you're out of the picture. After all, I dealt with them accordingly. But the story must continue. As it should.

The man tipped his hat slowly…

\- You know what the worst part of all this is? Now your father will never know where and why his precious little gem left him. And your would-be knight in shining armor? Having killed your old man, he would only find an empty bed, and an empty windowsill. An empty, unspoken promise of freedom. Ironic, now. You will witness as I rewrite history and begin anew. Magic shall dissipate into the aeon flux as a new mankind rises from the depths of the chasm… A mankind torn asunder by their own petty and distinct differences, never to reconcile, never to join hands in unity…

He stops abruptly to zero in on the statue.

\- And you will witness it all. And it gets worse.

He turns around and moves away slowly.

\- You will watch mankind grow, humans faunus all, and you will find their grand conflicts turned into petty, childish squabbles. Vast riches accumulated by kings and barons becoming nothing more than a beggar's change. Their everchanging kingdoms, countries, nations become faint lines in the sand. Their inhuman atrocities: genocide, rape, prejudice,… shall become as dreadful to you as stepping on an ant. Their anger, sadness, joy… once crucial elements to your humanity shall become alien to you. You shall envy them for fulfilling their lives, the choices they make, knowing that you shall have none of both… You shall silently lose hope and become as cynical as me… but beyond all this, there is an upside for you.

He fixes his fedora.

\- I grant you the Void and the Void is yours. You may observe mankind and find them wanting… but generations pass, there may be some who interest you. You shall grant them your only boon: your mark. The choices they make with the power they received from you… I do hope you shall gain a bit of gratification in this. Just like the last one used to do.

His eyes suddenly flare with a slight glint of melancholy…

\- You know not what would've happened had I let you live. It was best you never knew him, Sal. A young girl, knowing only walls all her life and never taught to accept loss, can never handle loss the right way… In another time, your undying desire for lost love destroyed all life. But now…

…as he stood up and leave.

\- …you will forever atone for a sin you never committed and be damned for it until my say so…

The silently wailing statue of the girl once in the tower looked on as the stranger made his way out the Void. The board is set. All the dominoes shall fall into place soon…

* * *

 **Note: The Salem shown here is pre-corruption Salem as revealed in V6E4 of RWBY.**


End file.
